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Princess Cassima. <3
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# ? Oct 24, 2017 03:46 |
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# ? May 9, 2024 20:45 |
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Assuming you came prepared with the items ahead of time, that update seems surprisingly logical and free of bullshit: >Give the animal something that makes noise when shook to play with. If you’ve ever owned a cat or dog, this seems extremely plausible. >This is the era of games where you were still expected to map by hand as you go, so the ‘maze’ you show doesn’t seem awful - a few dead ends but no one-way stairs or twisty passages or other Zork-style insanity. >Picking a lock with a hairpin is actually real world feasible. >Looting the kitchen should be standard practice by now. And since the game points out the peas, this is on you if you open the cabinet but dont grab them. > Giving the pretty girl the locket is fairly obvious. I mean, who the hell else in a remote shithole island castle is going to own a locket? The old evil wizard?
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# ? Oct 24, 2017 03:50 |
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DoubleNegative posted:
Watching this game unfold for the first time in years, my only thoughts are, "Yeah okay Sierra. That's a thing that should happen."
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# ? Oct 24, 2017 04:05 |
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man the joys of being a princess and having a creepy vizier hounding you...oh and then his equally creepy buddy starts after you too. Princesses just can't catch a break in this series it seems
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# ? Oct 24, 2017 04:08 |
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Dink and the alien thing are deeply unsettling to me for some reason, something about monsters in crappier old graphics being more frightful than monsters in modern games. Maybe it's because you're stuck with it in a tight corridor as it watches you like a spider. Also: quote:Even though you can only see it for a few frames, what is that blue thing above Graham? A bat? Is it harmless?
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# ? Oct 24, 2017 04:47 |
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When you're navigating the maze, there are random little critters that'll scuttle by as you walk around. Not sure what the blue is but there's a yellow spider-like one, too.
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# ? Oct 24, 2017 04:57 |
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If my memory is right, that little thing on the ceiling is a hint. Follow it and it will lead you to the door.
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# ? Oct 24, 2017 05:41 |
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MagusofStars posted:Assuming you came prepared with the items ahead of time Big assumption, especially for the locket! That's always the worst with these games, when the error is far back and also not made obvious by the death.
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# ? Oct 24, 2017 05:58 |
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Yeah, a lot of the puzzles seem fairly obvious if you have the solution already. If you didn't pick up the solution then you're stuck guessing what the hell you missed.
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# ? Oct 24, 2017 07:57 |
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So does Dink’s right arm just disappear when he hugs Graham? Or is he actually bending it in a semicircle to fit it underneath his face?
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# ? Oct 24, 2017 08:11 |
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senrath posted:Yeah, a lot of the puzzles seem fairly obvious if you have the solution already. If you didn't pick up the solution then you're stuck guessing what the hell you missed. That's what's so loving awful about the locket. It's entirely reasonable for a player to straight up not notice the glinting pixel in the short window you have to grab it, and there's no indication whatsoever that you missed anything, even when you get to Cassima.
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# ? Oct 24, 2017 09:19 |
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mordack is actually pretty hot, not sure why he needs to resort to abduction here
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# ? Oct 24, 2017 10:55 |
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This is one of those incidents of the grand tradition of hack fantasy writing where 'olive skinned' is just used as a synonym for 'attractive' isn't it? Mordack's sprite is closer to looking olive-skinned than the Princess is.
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# ? Oct 24, 2017 12:12 |
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I think a lot of writers use "olive-skinned" to refer to Olive Oyl. Completely pale and with limbs like spaghetti. Also I forgot that Cassima outright tells you how horrible her father's vizier is. This is one of those moments that makes you realize an entire future story could have been avoided if people had just paid attention.
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# ? Oct 24, 2017 12:26 |
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correct thing for mordack to do: "hey i'll deal with that vizier for you, but i want one date" wrong thing for mordack to do: "i'm kidnapping you and now you're my scullery maid" completely wrong thing for mordack to do: "i'm going to make this unrelated castle small and put it in a bottle"
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# ? Oct 24, 2017 13:02 |
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You mean girls aren't impressed by my collection of ships and castles in bottles?
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# ? Oct 24, 2017 13:18 |
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MagusofStars posted:
Considering it's made out of bone and fits the lock perfectly, I think it's supposed to be a skeleton key, not a lockpick.
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# ? Oct 24, 2017 13:31 |
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where the red fern gropes posted:correct thing for mordack to do: "hey i'll deal with that vizier for you, but i want one date" To be fair Mordack stealing the castle is completely unrelated his unfortunate method of picking up chicks. That's trying to force Alexander to uncat his brother. We can't go into anything involving the vizier until KQ6.
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# ? Oct 24, 2017 19:47 |
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The vizier is evil? No! Really? where the red fern gropes posted:mordack is actually pretty hot, not sure why he needs to resort to abduction here
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# ? Oct 24, 2017 23:12 |
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Really it's just a matter of bylaws. Can't keep your evil wizard's guild card if you don't visit calamity on some do-gooder once a year.
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# ? Oct 25, 2017 04:21 |
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Glazius posted:Really it's just a matter of bylaws. Can't keep your evil wizard's guild card if you don't visit calamity on some do-gooder once a year. I read the words "guild" and "calamity" and now my headcanon is Mordack speaks with the voice and flourish of Phantom Limb.
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# ? Oct 25, 2017 04:28 |
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Still impressed that King Graham has the sickest arms of all of Daventry and Serenia based on that clip. Too bad he's all show and no go and constantly gets physically chumped by just about every living thing or fall greater than 1 foot.
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# ? Oct 25, 2017 06:33 |
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Why does Mordack need Alexander to return his brother to normal anyway? It's not like Alex took the spellbook with him when he left the house forever. It shouldn't be too hard for Mordack to figure out which particular spell he used and work from there. Not only that, Mannanan still has the power of speech which means he could steer him towards it if need be. You could argue that Graham can only understand what Mannanan says because of the white snake. But in that case, how would Mordack even be aware that the cat is his transformed brother? Eshettar fucked around with this message at 11:38 on Oct 25, 2017 |
# ? Oct 25, 2017 11:36 |
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Eshettar posted:Why does Mordack need Alexander to return his brother to normal anyway? Or maybe something where part of the ‘wizard’ who cast the curse (Alex) is needed in order to create the antidote. Both are fairly common concept/tropes in fantasy settings, specifically because it sets up good situations for revenge like this.
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# ? Oct 25, 2017 11:50 |
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Maybe Mordack doesn't actually want to help his brother and just wants an excuse to terrorize a castle, while at the same time not wanting to wake up with cat rear end in his face every morning from now on.
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# ? Oct 25, 2017 12:07 |
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King's Quest does indeed work on the "Only the casting wizard can undo the spell" rule here. Side material shows Alexander knows about this and is fully bullshitting Mordack to stall for time, if I'm not mistaken.
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# ? Oct 25, 2017 12:09 |
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bladeworksmaster posted:King's Quest does indeed work on the "Only the casting wizard can undo the spell" rule here. Side material shows Alexander knows about this and is fully bullshitting Mordack to stall for time, if I'm not mistaken. Mordack probably wouldn't be very kind to Alexander or the royal family if he knew the fine print of the spell. It's also pretty likely that even if the spell were reversible, Alex would have no idea how to do it. Also update coming shortly.
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# ? Oct 25, 2017 12:16 |
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bladeworksmaster posted:King's Quest does indeed work on the "Only the casting wizard can undo the spell" rule here. Side material shows Alexander knows about this and is fully bullshitting Mordack to stall for time, if I'm not mistaken. Even when Alex knew sod all about magic and was bumbling through a basic book? Wow. Being a wizard must be pretty special. Maybe that’s why Mordack’s so upset. He bought his evil wizard starter kit and then learned that’s actually all there is.
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# ? Oct 25, 2017 12:17 |
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Interestingly enough, you only find out that Mannanan can talk if you try speaking to him which leads to your death. So in a successful run of the game, you never even hear him speak. Of course, this is King's Quest V so the idea of someone avoiding any of the deaths is downright hilarious anyway. By the way, if Mordack catches you in the kitchen then Cassima actually recoils in terror as he's torturing you. It's one of the darker deaths, when you think about it. Not only is she watching a man die before her eyes, he was her last hope of escaping from Mordack's clutches. Eshettar fucked around with this message at 13:26 on Oct 25, 2017 |
# ? Oct 25, 2017 13:16 |
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Graham can only understand Manannan because of the whitesnake, just like Alexander could only understand him because of the magic dough in his ears. If you haven't made that spell in III and do something to Manannan, you'll only hear him screeching. Still satisfying, but perhaps less so.
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# ? Oct 25, 2017 13:25 |
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King's Quest V - Jailed and Rescued Hello everyone and welcome back to King's Quest V. This looks pretty grim. We're locked in a cell with no way out, and at least one other person has already died in here. ceiling : Above him, Graham can see a damp, rusty grate leading to...who knows where? Being captured by the blue alien was actually something that needed to happen. Do you see that tiny mouse hole in the background? Well, when you first get thrown into the cell, a rat scurries into it. That's your only clue that you can do something with it. mouse hole : Graham can see a small, moldy piece of cheese just inside the mousehole. cheese : Graham finds that his hand is too large to reach very far into the mousehole. : Graham can't reach into the mousehole far enough to retrieve the piece of cheese. : Graham can ALMOST reach the piece of cheese inside the mousehole... but finds his hand too large to reach very far. Hint. Hint. Hint. Hint. Hint. This cheese is another "gently caress you" item from the developers. We'll need this in just a short while, but we have no apparent way of getting it. Do you remember the last pixel hunt we went on a couple of updates ago? cheese : There! Got it! The fishhook did the trick in retrieving the piece of cheese from the mousehole. : The bag is full of round, dried peas. : Green mold covers the small piece of cheese. Now that we're carrying around moldy cheese, we can just chill for a bit. : Hello. : What? Princess Cassima! Where did you come from?! : From the labyrinth. I spend a lot of time down here, you know... with my friends. : Friends? : Yes. Like Dink... and Sam. I don't know if you ever saw Sam or not. Anyway, I found this loose stone once that led here... to this cell. Now come on! You'd better get out of here! Now you know why I said that failing to get the locket would gently caress you over. You need that cheese for a later puzzle. While I believe it is possible to get to Mordack's lab without befriending Cassima, you would still fail on the same puzzle as the cheese. So that's why I believe the locket is the longest DMW in the game, just for how long it takes to terminate and how far back you have to go just to set the situation right. hole We step out of the oubliette and into the maze, but Cassima is nice enough to lead us back to the door. In this one situation, Cassima is our personal Spider Man. That is to say, she'll only save our rear end once. Let's return to the dining room. We have to lay a trap for an rear end in a top hat. We only saw this briefly in the gif last time, but this is the second screen of the dining room. The blue alien will typically ambush you here. But first, what happens if you get caught twice? loose stone : The stone can't be budged anymore. loose stone : It looks like someone replaced and mortared the loose stone. We're pretty well boned here, guys. After a little less than a minute of waiting... : After observing no discernible escape route from the small cell, Graham sinks to the floor in despair, knowing he will never see the light of day again. : Too bad! So close, yet so far away. Our current big problem is the blue alien creature. He's pretty aggressive and shows up regularly, so to have any peace of mind we need to stop him. How? Remember when I complained about the devs watching too many cartoons? Just... blue alien I want you to imagine the sound effect it's making while tripping on the peas. The prior sentence about cartoons is related. You're probably right with your first guess. blue alien : A large beast lies stunned on the floor. west I need a specific character to show up on this screen, so I just have to pace back and forth until it shows up. Do you see it in the middle of the screen? It's a mass of black pixels. pixels : You! How did you get here? : I have journeyed far; over land and sea... : Never mind! Your journey is now over! : Graham, that was Manannan. He kidnapped your son and enslaved him for the better part of two decades. : Wait, what? Aw, crap... : Goodbye, King Graham of Daventry! Heheheheh. We saw this death last time, so let's just rewind to before Merovingian got away. So how do we deal with Mxyzptlk if he runs away when he catches sight of Graham? Well, let's look at our inventory. That's new. Looks like the bag of peas is now just a burlap sack. I'm getting an idea... : Graham carries a large empty bag once occupied by dried peas. I bet Manny is hungry. : Meeoooorrrrwww!! : Let me out! Mordack will hear of this! : You must be Manannan. Alexander told me all about you. Don't go anywhere. After I deal with your brother, we're going to have a nice, long talk. : Contrary to his usual jovial nature, Graham's voice is icy and full of barely-suppressed rage. sack : The cat struggles in vain inside the bag. upstairs So, there's some good news. The upstairs hallway marks the beginning of the end! We just have six puzzles between us and the end of the game, and four of them make up the final confrontation with Mordack. east This must be Mordack's laboratory. He seems to be, among other things, into metalworking because that's a forge on the right side of the screen. This is actually a pretty nice lab if you ignore the vein-like tree roots covering most of the surfaces. Most importantly, there's a glass jar in the foreground that looks awfully familiar. jar : Tears come to Graham's eyes as he sees his beloved family and castle held captive inside a large glass bottle. There's actually nothing we can do in here right yet, so let's leave for now. west x2 Mordack's bedroom is pretty creepy. It doesn't look very homey or inviting at all. bed : A large, grotesque bed occupies one corner of Mordack's bedroom. It doesn't look like it, but there's an exit to the south. south bookshelves : Many books and scrolls line the shelves of Mordack's library. As Graham looks them over, however, he finds them mostly unintelligible. Looking at this gigantic library, I wonder just how many books in it Mordack has read. That's actually something I wonder about most large private libraraies. Anyway, there's an open book in the foreground that looks like decoration. We can click on it for some valuable information. book : A large tome lying upon a corner desk attracts Graham's curiosity. book : Hmmmm, this looks interesting. Graham wonders what the symbols mean. The points jingle happens when you click on the book, but the particular points guide I'm using doesn't have it listed. It still has 260/260 points, so... For what it's worth, a guide on GameFAQs says there's +3 from reading the spellbook. I'm gonna stick with the one from SierraHelp.com that I've been using for most of the LP. It's the first result on Google and is, for the most part, comprehensive. Anyway, this particular image will let us actually win the game. It appears to show someone turning into various animals, as well as a sweaty butt. 08:41 The video file for the update has been running for 8 minutes and 41 seconds as of this screenshot. More importantly, you all know what a bolded timecode means... 09:41 10:41 11:51 If you're standing in plain view when Mordack teleports in, I seem to remember him killing you for it. So here I was trying to show off this death I vaguely remembered, but it didn't quite work out. I guess he was tired as hell. Snorb posted:If Graham moves far enough into the library, the eye above the door opens and tracks his movement. If Mordack's supposed to appear in his bedroom while the eye's open, he appears in the library to Force choke Graham out. north : Mordack lies asleep on his huge, horrendous bed. : This would not be a good time to bother Mordack. It would be so easy to kill him here. All Graham would have to do is wrap his hands extremely tight around Mordack's neck and not let go. But nope... can't do things the easy way. : Graham wisely decides to keep his mouth shut. Can't even show off funny deaths. Anyway, there's something laying on the bedside table. Let's steal it. object on table : Mordack's wand lies temptingly upon the small table near his bed. wand : Mordack's wand glows brightly with restrained power. east x2 That's a good stopping point for now. NEXT TIME: The end of King's Quest V List of Points +4 - Retrieved cheese +3 - Cartoon pratfall +3 - Tempted the cat +2 - Captured Manannan +3 - Stole Mordack's wand Total 227/260 Register of Deaths Captured twice Mannfred told on Graham DoubleNegative fucked around with this message at 03:27 on Nov 13, 2017 |
# ? Oct 25, 2017 14:18 |
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What happens if you use the peas on the blue alien the first time he shows up? Do you just end up DMW'ing yourself because you now can't get the cheese?
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# ? Oct 25, 2017 15:34 |
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Peas wouldn't even work for that gag! They're nowhere near round or hard enough, they'd just end up getting crushed. Thinking about it, the peas seem representative of one of the big issues with Roberta's puzzle design. If you'd found a bag of marbles, you might reasonably guess that you could use it to trip up a pursuer. It'd take some lateral thinking, but it at least is plausible. But that's too obvious, I guess, so you instead have to find something that, in someone's deranged imagination, could substitute for marbles. Similarly, honey is not glue and would make a poor sticky trap at best -- couldn't there have been, say, a carpenter in the town that you could nick a tub of glue from? And a small glob of wax isn't going to be sufficient to dam a leak in a boat (or if it is, the leak will be slow enough that you could bail it by hand and be OK). But you could have used a canvas patch. And I'm sure there are plenty of examples from the earlier games as well of the protagonists adapting woefully inadequate substitutes for real tools rather than using those actual tools. This seems like a reasonable moment to link the famous rant about the death of adventure games, using a particular puzzle from Gabriel Knight 3 to illustrate how badly a "puzzle" can go wrong. (I guess this at least indicates that it's not merely Roberta Williams' fault that these puzzles are so awful) TooMuchAbstraction fucked around with this message at 16:12 on Oct 25, 2017 |
# ? Oct 25, 2017 16:08 |
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Remember that selling hint books was a major part of their business model, if the puzzles were 'reasonable' (by common logic of the time) then they would have a much harder time getting players to buy them.
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# ? Oct 25, 2017 16:17 |
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If Graham moves far enough into the library, the eye above the door opens and tracks his movement. If Mordack's supposed to appear in his bedroom while the eye's open, he appears in the library to Force choke Graham out. Also, there's no loving way Mordack couldn't see Graham from where they were standing. TooMuchAbstraction posted:THAT puzzle from Blood of the Sacred Blood of the Damned From what I've seen online, nobody at Sierra liked that puzzle; Roberta Williams left Sierra without telling anybody what she had intended for that sequence, and that was the first puzzle the team could come up with. Snorb fucked around with this message at 16:22 on Oct 25, 2017 |
# ? Oct 25, 2017 16:19 |
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I understand the logic behind that puzzle but the methods and items used would need changes for it to make sense. The logic behind adding the moustache to the passport is to add a salient feature that will get the clerk's attention so he won't notice the rest of the face doesn't match.
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# ? Oct 25, 2017 16:31 |
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Deathwind posted:I understand the logic behind that puzzle but the methods and items used would need changes for it to make sense. By adding a salient feature that doesn't match?
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# ? Oct 25, 2017 16:33 |
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Then you add that feature to your own face. It's the part of the puzzle that needs the most rework.
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# ? Oct 25, 2017 16:37 |
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TooMuchAbstraction posted:Peas wouldn't even work for that gag! They're nowhere near round or hard enough, they'd just end up getting crushed. Yeah! Those stupid things aren't good for anything!
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# ? Oct 25, 2017 17:20 |
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# ? May 9, 2024 20:45 |
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idonotlikepeas posted:Yeah! Those stupid things aren't good for anything! I always like a good username/post joke
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# ? Oct 25, 2017 18:42 |